Wansteadium

James Weir, Wanstead-based founder of microbrewery Upstart Brewing, writes:

I’m 37 years old, originally from Yorkshire and I’ve lived in East London for 11 years ; seven in Hackney and the last four in Wanstead. My background is in financial services – I was a City fund manager for nine years most recently, investing in Chinese and Asian equities, but in August I gave that up to launch Upstart Brewing.

I’ve been brewing at home for 10 years – I started when I went back to Uni to do a Master’s degree and when I figured out my budget I couldn’t afford beer! I’m pretty much self-taught from books and experimentation. I started to get ‘serious’ about five years ago, when I bought a commercial pilot line and stuck it in my garage. That really got me hooked on the quality and variety of beers which I could produce, and I began to think that I could do something with my hobby. I find that brewing really stimulates the senses, gives you a real physical sense of tiredness and achievement and you end up with a superb end product!

My wife’s from Santa Cruz, California, so I was also travelling there regularly and being influenced by what was being done with beer on the West Coast. The last five years have coincided with that West Coast revolution coming ‘home’ (as least as far as IPA is concerned) and a real explosion in brewing in London. I like the beer from the new group of London brewers, but I think mine’s just as good, and I’d like to get it out of my garage and into people’s glasses! I think my recipes are a little bit different in that I’m trying to be a bit more ‘European’ – the US influence is good but it really dominates the new breweries now, and I’m personally getting a little over beer which tastes like grapefruit juice.

So – the concept is that I’m going to take the recipes I’ve developed in my garage and produce them on a bigger scale for sale. For starters, I’ve been contract brewing (i.e. brew my recipes on someone else’s kit) with Andy Skene at Pitfield Brewery, who is a top brewer with 30 years’ experience and has a five barrel plant (c900 litres/batch). So far I’ve brewed two beers with him, a 4.3% pale ale, Upstart Alpha, and a 4.8% German Schwarzbier, Upstart Beta, and I’m working on a third, Amber beer. My aim is to get these out to the beer drinkers of Wanstead and East London in cask and bottle, share the joy I feel about beer and really demonstrate that there is a market for these recipes.

I’m running a party on Saturday 7 December, and I want to start doing more events around beer in Wanstead and environs. The concept for Saturday is really a mini-beer festival – it’s my beer plus those of Andy Skene’s and some others brewing at his plant -  if it gets support I’d like to get some other breweries in and do it regularly e.g. monthly/quarterly.

Parallel with that, I’m looking for industrial premises to set up a brewery of my own. Initially, I may use my pilot line, but I’m planning on putting in a larger kit so that I can do commercial scale production of my beers.

I’m not convinced there’s a huge profit in beer – I think Pliny the Elder said ‘fortune favours the brave’, shortly prior to getting taken out by some hot pumice – but this is a real vocation for me, and the craft of it beats the hell out of the daily Central Line grind, a Bloomberg screen for a best buddy and a Pret sandwich for lunch.

Here’s a brief description of the two beers:

Upstart Alpha: A quadruple hopped 4.3% Pale ale made with Magnum, Fuggle and Hallertauer hops on a base of Belgian Aromatic and Wheat malts.

Upstart Beta: A 4.8% German-style dark beer made with chocolate malt and black malt and dry hopped with spicy Tettnang.

 

George C Parker, Wansteadium’s property blogger, writes:

* December already! As always, gentle Wanstead folk go about their business in the run up to the Festive season. They pop into Harvey’s for parcels of winter berries and mistletoe, and leave their goose and turkey orders graven in the grand book of fowls kept at AG Dennis. Al along the High Street, twinkling bulbs light the crisp dusky evenings, the chain coffee shops commit quite unspeakable crimes against cinnamon, and parents make the gravest of oaths to their little darlings regarding their behaviour influencing the big man’s generosity come the 25th.

* Back at Parker Towers, when business affairs are put to one side for the rest of the year, I like to pour a glass of something Churchillian, and settle back with Mrs P to watch a classic movie by the fireside. And if for whatever reason (usually precedent) my viewing companion flatly refuses my first two dozen choices on grounds of taste and decency (her loss) then we compromise on a Christmas classic. My all-time favourite is the incomparable It’s a Wonderful Life, not least because I recognise a lot of the young George C Parker in the character of George Bailey – it’s almost suspicious. Principled, beautifully cardiganed, modest, the hero defends his beloved family “Savings and Loan” building society business tooth and nail in order to keep alive the hopes and dreams of the good people of Bedford Falls. I’m getting an investment idea: Parker’s Saving and Loan would be hot on speakeasies, emporia, mansion flats and bookshops; tough on betting shops and drab chains. Perhaps an idea worth reviving in my 2014 resolutions .. I’ll let you all in on the ground floor.

* Talking of ground floors, in Autumn, I covered the news of a premium bungalow on the Avenue which appears to be still on the market. For the avoidance of doubt dear readers, it does have a chimney, so there are no grounds to fear that any seasonal, sleigh-based delivery service would have difficulty in servicing the property. Bid away.

* Finally, a word on house prices, which seem to have strengthened particularly during 2013. A stalwart Guardian journalist recently tweeted that his Wanstead pad had nominally increased by 20% in the past year. This kind of news might not please those trying to get on the property ladder, but it does tend to bear out my frequent assertions that Wanstead’s fine location and amenity will continue to serve it well in future.

Wanstead author Mike Edwards, who launches his new book Shelf Life E11:E4:E18 this weekend, writes:

While I was studying photography at City Lit college over five years ago, we were sent out to our High Streets to capture images of shopkeepers at their work in a particular style of photography called Environmental Portraiture. My tutor encouraged me to gather more images as he saw a good relationship between me and my ʻsubjectsʼ.

But as I did so, I became more interested in the stories that I was being told, and decided to record them alongside the photo. An idea for a book was forming in my mind, and I sought out people who had been in their jobs for many years as they seemed to have the stories I wanted – interesting backgrounds, and an unspoken pride and fortitude in the work to which they were devoted. I was also concerned about the numbers of shops that were changing hands and wanted to preserve these stories and images.

I was learning a lot about peopleʼs lives, but I was also learning a lot about myself as well.

In the past I was uncomfortable going into a new environment, and at the beginning of this project I felt nervous about making requests, as I felt I was intruding into their space, but the more approaches I made, the more my confidence grew, and I allowed myself to hear the positive responses to my project.

I risked asking more personal questions about their lives, with the proviso of course that they had the final say about the story to be published, and most people surprisingly opened up and a two way trust developed. It was as if they hadnʼt really been asked properly about themselves, nor been listened to effectively. So they told of the lives they had made for themselves following sometimes very difficult upbringings, experiences before and during the 2nd World War, fascinating facts about their ancestorsʼ routes to this country, going back three or four generations, but also the sociological changes to this area during their lives. I was amazed when occasionally they thought they had nothing interesting to say. I was hooked.

These interviews were conducted over a coffee, or a beer, but the hours spent talking would fly by, and I came home with pages and pages of notes to be condensed into a cohesive story. I ʻvoice recordedʼ one story on a milk float, and have the iconic whine, the clink of the bottles, and the milkmanʼs banter with his customers to remind me of my childhood.

Iʼve learned that it pays to be bold and not be scared to ask. That everyone has something of interest to say, that all it takes is the right question, and then the most important part, spending the time to listen. I hope the resultant book, Shelf Life E11:E4:E18 reflects all that I have learned about listening – oh, as well as the origins of the wine trade in New Zealand.

Shelf Life E11:E4:E18 will be launched at the Eightyfour gallery, 84 Nightingale Lane, Wanstead, on Sunday 8 December between 2pm and 5pm.

Wansteaders: these stickers appearing near door locks. Apparently a way if seeing if house used @wansteadium pic.twitter.com/EPjX6wOrx5

— Tom Dolan (@tomskerous) November 30, 2013

Wanstead has apparently been hit by a wave of “locksmith stickers” which it is believed are ruses to indicate to burglars where there are empty houses.

The Safer Neighbourhood Team has warned residents that the small clear plastic stickers may be used by burglars. Houses in Woodlands Avenue and the Lake House Estate have apparently been stickered. The Evening Standard has reported that bona fide locksmiths who also use the stickers have suffered from residents’ suspicions. Wansteadium reader Tom Dolan, who tweeted above, contacted police about the stickers, and tried to ring the advertised number – but says it did not connect.

The SNT told Neighbourhood Watch coordinators that in parts of Wanstead individually vulnerable houses with, for instance, easy access to the back of the property, appeared to have been singled out. They advised householders to remove any stickers they see.

Geoff Wilkinson writes on Wanstead Daily Photo: “This is another photograph taken on George Green… it seemed a shame not to make the most of the light. I’ve always assumed these trees were planted as a group but as you can see from the picture there appears to be an age difference, youngest on the left etc”

Wansteadium reader and Wanstead expert Richard Arnopp writes:

These trees – and a couple of other venerable survivors on Christchurch Green – were probably planted by Sir Josiah Child in the late seventeenth century, or his son Sir Richard (later Earl Tylney of Castlemaine). They were part of the great avenues which radiated from Wanstead House to Eagle Pond to the north, Leytonstone to the west, and Capel Road to the south.

A clutch of Christmassy events takes place in Wanstead on Saturday.

* The first ever Wanstead Makers Market is at the Christchurch Hall from 10am to 4pm – offering locally made jewellery, clothes, homewares, cakes and a cafe. More details here.

*Our Lady of Lourdes’ Christmas Fayre is between noon and 4pm and will have real reindeer in attendance, a grotto and choir.

*Wanstead Church School too will be holdings its PTA Christmas Fayre.

*A German market will be held at Aldersbrook Bowls Club from 2pm until 6pm will have seasonal stalls, mulled wine, bratwurst and live music.

*The final Wanstead Farmers’ Market of 2013 will be taking place on Sunday in the usual place at the usual time.